Practice management

Not according to employers, who are turning to brokers to help them navigate the ACA, explore technology capabilities and administer group plans, a new study finds.

The honor recognizes extraordinary contributions such as significantly increasing a firm’s sales and/or market share, providing strategic consulting to help clients achieve their highest goals, fostering employee benefit innovations, advocating successfully for adviser causes and, in general, elevating the status of all women in the profession.

Commentary: As a broker offering these benefits to your employer groups, it is important to become proficient in voluntary benefits or choose to outsource this expertise.

Michael Turpin, the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s Northeast region, shares his thoughts on the new landscape and the potential impact the deal could have on benefit brokers and the insurance industry.

Commentary: Brokers need to embrace technologies that allow them to work faster, smarter and more cost-effectively — here are 6 ways to streamline your business.

With just three major insurance companies, brokers must distinguish themselves from carriers, create additional approaches to serve clients and develop alternative risk approaches to health benefits, industry experts say.

Anthem Inc. struck a deal to buy rival Cigna Corp. for $48.4 billion, wrapping up almost a year of contentious negotiations and potentially creating the largest health insurer in the U.S.

Commentary: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejects a previous decision that the interns were employees and establishes a new standard for determining whether interns are employees.

Worksite voluntary benefits are gaining in popularity on standard ancillary benefit offerings, but the adviser’s sales approach to each needs to be varied.

As a value-added reseller, Apprize Technology sells and services to brokers three different benefit administration platforms, what many call a private exchange— bswift, benefitsCONNECT and Infiniti HR. Gary Wert, Apprize’s president, discusses why Apprize and other resellers may have to turn away business in the fourth quarter and why some brokers aren’t building their own exchange, but rather using a reseller.

Commentary: Technology helps, but it does not replace the expertise and experience of a broker. Rather, it helps to elevate what the broker can supply to a level that is equal to consumer demand, says Zywave’s Dave O’Brien.

Commentary: There is no better time to be a broker, says Zywave’s Dave O’Brien.

Industry trade groups and associations flooded the DOL with suggested amendments and revisions to its proposed fiduciary rule, ahead of the July 21 deadline for comments.

How San Francisco-based Equity Risk Partners’ focus on private equity firms had made the small firm a big player in the niche market.

Commentary: Hiring a part-timer in commission insurance sales is never a bad thing, says adviser Eric Silverman, who shares two tips to make the best out of the process.

Commentary: It is not necessary to have an intricate knowledge of every IDI product provision to help clients get the income protection they need.

Commentary: Your internal work environment may be holding you back from attracting top people and creating exceptional new experiences for clients. The definition of “work” is changing as quickly as technology emerges and millennials enter the workforce, moving into spheres of influence. None of us, including clients, are limited by a single idea of work and we need to re-imagine it altogether.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that more than 77,000 brokers and agents assisted with enrollments on the federally-facilitated marketplace in year two open enrollment, up 46% from the year prior.

Clients are turning to their benefit adviser for technology support — something brokers have to provide. Choosing a partner with the same goals and understanding the entire process are essential.

Commentary: Hispanics comprise almost 17% of today’s U.S. population. This demographic represents the most significant population trend in Americans under 65 in the next 20 years. This isn't just a population trend, your sales depend on recognizing the cultural shift happening underneath your feet.